TO THE REVEREND FATHER ANNAT, JESUIT
January 23, 1657
REVEREND FATHER,
Your former behaviour had induced me to believe that you were
anxious for a truce in our hostilities, and I was quite disposed to
agree that it should be so. Of late, however, you have poured forth
such a volley of pamphlets, in such rapid succession, as to make it
apparent that peace rests on a very precarious footing when it depends
on the silence of Jesuits. I know not if this rupture will prove
very advantageous to you; but, for my part, I am far from regretting
the opportunity which it affords me of rebu*ting that stale charge
of heresy with which your writings abound.
It is full time, indeed, that I should, once for all, put a stop
to the liberty you have taken to treat me as a heretic- a piece of
gratuitous impertinence which seems to increase by indulgence, and
which is exhibited in your last book in a style of such intolerable
a**urance that, were I not to answer the charge as it deserves, I
might lay myself open to the suspicion of being actually guilty. So
long as the insult was confined to your a**ociates I despised it, as I
did a thousand others with which they interlarded their productions.
To these my Fifteenth Letter was a sufficient reply. But you now
repeat the charge with a different air: you make it the main point
of your vindication. It is, in fact, almost the only thing in the
shape of argument that you employ. You say that, "as a complete answer
to my fifteen letters, it is enough to say fifteen times that I am a
heretic; and, having been pronounced such, I deserve no credit." In
short, you make no question of my apostasy, but a**ume it as a settled
point, on which you may build with all confidence. You are serious
then, father, it would seem, in deeming me a heretic. I shall be
equally serious in replying to the charge.
You are well aware, sir, that heresy is a charge of grave a
character that it is an act of high presumption to advance, without
being prepared to substantiate it. I now demand your proofs. When
was I seen at Charenton? When did I fail in my presence at ma**, or in
my Christian duty to my parish church? What act of union with
heretics, or of schism with the Church, can you lay to my charge? What
council have I contradicted? What papal constitution have I
violated? You must answer, father, else- You know what I mean. And
what do you answer? I beseech all to observe it: First of all, you
a**ume "that the author of the letters is a Port-Royalist"; then you
tell us "that Port-Royal is declared to be heretical"; and, therefore,
you conclude, "the author of letters must be a heretic." It is not
on me, then, father, that the weight of this indictment falls, but
on Port-Royal; and I am only involved in the crime because you suppose
me to belong to that establishment; so that it will be no difficult
matter for me to exculpate myself from the charge. I have no more to
say than that I am not a member of that community; and to refer you to
my letters, in which I have declared that "I am a private individual";
and again in so many words, that "I am not of Port-Royal, as I said in
my Sixteenth Letter, which preceded your publication.
You must fall on some other way, then, to prove me heretic,
otherwise the whole world will be convinced that it is beyond your
power to make good your accusation. Prove from my writings that I do
not receive the constitution. My letters are not very voluminous-
there are but sixteen of them- and I defy you or anybody else to
detect in them the slightest foundation for such a charge. I shall,
however, with your permission, produce something out of them to
prove the reverse. When, for example, I say in the Fourteenth that,
"by k**ing our brethren in mortal sin, according to your maxims, we
are damning those for whom Jesus Christ died, do I not plainly
acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for those who may be damned, and,
consequently, declare it to be false "that he died only for the
predestinated," which is the error condemned in the fifth proposition?
Certain it is, father, that I have not said a word in behalf of
these impious propositions, which I detest with all my heart. And even
though Port-Royal should hold them, I protest against your drawing any
conclusion from this against me, as, thank God, I have no sort of
connection with any community except the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman
Church, in the bosom of which I desire to live and die, in communion
with the Pope, the head of the Church, and beyond the pale of which
I am persuaded there is no salvation.
How are you to get at a person who talks in this way, father? On
what quarter will you a**ail me, since neither my words nor my
writings afford the slightest handle to your accusations, and the
obscurity in which my person is enveloped forms my protection
against your threatenings? You feel yourselves smitten by an invisible
hand- a hand, however, which makes your delinquencies visible to all
the earth; and in vain do you endeavour to attack me in the person
of those with whom you suppose me to be a**ociated. I fear you not,
either on my own account or on that of any other, being bound by no
tie either to a community or to any individual whatsoever. All the
influence which your Society possesses can be of no avail in my
case. From this world I have nothing to hope, nothing to dread,
nothing to desire. Through the goodness of God, I have no need of
any man's money or any man's patronage. Thus, my father, I elude all
your attempts to lay hold of me. You may touch Port-Royal, if you
choose, but you shall not touch me. You may turn people out of the
Sorbonne, but that will not turn me out of my domicile. You may
contrive plots against priests and doctors, but not against me, for
I am neither the one nor the other. And thus, father, you never
perhaps had to do, in the whole course of your experience, with a
person so completely beyond your reach, and therefore so admirably
qualified for dealing with your errors- one perfectly free- one
without engagement, entanglement, relationship, or business of any
kind- one, too, who is pretty well versed in your maxims, and
determined, as God shall give him light, to discuss them, without
permitting any earthly consideration to arrest or slacken his
endeavours.
Since, then, you can do nothing against me, what good purpose
can it serve to publish so many calumnies, as you and your brethren
are doing, against a cla** of persons who are in no way implicated
in our disputes? You shall not escape under these subterfuges: you
shall be made to feel the force of the truth in spite of them. How
does the case stand? I tell you that you are ruining Christian
morality by divorcing it from the love of God, and dispensing with its
obligation; and you talk about "the d**h of Father Mester"- a
person whom I never saw in my life. I tell you that your authors
permit a man to k** another for the sake of an apple, when it would
be dishonourable to lose it; and you reply by informing me that
somebody "has broken into the poor-box at St. Merri!" Again, what
can you possibly mean by mixing me up perpetually with the book On the
Holy Virginity, written by some father of the Oratory, whom I never
saw any more than his book? It is rather extraordinary, father, that
you should thus regard all that are opposed to you as if they were one
person. Your hatred would grasp them all at once, and would hold
them as a body of reprobates, every one of whom is responsible for all
the rest.
There is a vast difference between Jesuits and all their
opponents. There can be no doubt that you compose one body, united
under one head; and your regulations, as I have shown, prohibit you
from printing anything without the approbation of your superiors,
who are responsible for all the errors of individual writers, and
who "cannot excuse themselves by saying that they did not observe
the errors in any publication, for they ought to have observed
them." So say your ordinances, and so say the letters of your
generals, Aquaviva, Vitelleschi, &c. We have good reason, therefore,
for charging upon you the errors of your a**ociates, when we find they
are sanctioned by your superiors and the divines of your Society. With
me, however, father, the case stands otherwise. I have not
subscribed to the book of the Holy Virginity. All the alms-boxes in
Paris may be broken into, and yet I am not the less a good Catholic
for all that. In short, I beg to inform you, in the plainest terms,
that nobody is responsible for my letters but myself, and that I am
responsible for nothing but my letters.
Here, father, I might fairly enough have brought our dispute to an
issue, without saying a word about those other persons whom you
stigmatize as heretics, in order to comprehend me under the
condemnation. But, as I have been the occasion of their ill treatment,
I consider myself bound in some sort to improve the occasion, and I
shall take advantage of it in three particulars. One advantage, not
inconsiderable in its way, is that it will enable me to vindicate
the innocence of so many calumniated individuals. Another, not
inappropriate to my subject, will be to disclose, at the same time,
the artifices of your policy in this accusation. But the advantage
which I prize most of all is that it affords me an opportunity of
apprising the world of the falsehood of that scandalous report which
you have been so busily disseminating, namely, "that the Church is
divided by a new heresy." And as you are deceiving multitudes into the
belief that the points on which you are raising such a storm are
essential to the faith, I consider it of the last importance to
quash these unfounded impressions, and distinctly to explain here what
these points are, so as to show that, in point of fact, there are no
heretics in the Church.
I presume, then, that were the question to be asked: Wherein
consists the heresy of those called Jansenists? the immediate reply
would be, "These people hold that the commandments of God are
impracticable to men, that grace is irresistible, that we have not
free will to do either good or evil, that Jesus Christ did not die for
all men, but only for the elect; in short, they maintain the five
propositions condemned by the Pope." Do you not give it out to all
that this is the ground on which you persecute your opponents? Have
you not said as much in your books, in your conversations, in your
catechisms? A specimen of this you gave at the late Christmas festival
at St. Louis. One of your little shepherdesses was questioned thus:
"For whom did Jesus Christ come into the world, my dear?"
"For all men, father."
"Indeed, my child; so you are not one of those new heretics who
say that he came only for the elect?"
Thus children are led to believe you, and many others besides
children; for you entertain people with the same stuff in your sermons
as Father Cra**et did at Orleans, before he was laid under an
interdict. And I frankly own that, at one time, I believed you myself.
You had given me precisely the same idea of these good people; so
that, when you pressed them on these propositions, I narrowly
watched their answer, determined never to see them more, if they did
not renounce them as palpable impieties.
This, however, they have done in the most unequivocal way. M. de
Sainte-Beuve, king's professor in the Sorbonne, censured these
propositions in his published writings long before the Pope; and other
Augustinian doctors, in various publications, and, among others, in
a work On Victorious Grace, reject the same articles as both heretical
and strange doctrines. In the preface to that work they say that these
propositions are "heretical and Lutheran, forged and fabricated at
pleasure, and are neither to be found in Jansenius, nor in his
defenders. " They complain of being charged with such sentiments,
and address you in the words of St. Prosper, the first disciple of St.
Augustine their master, to whom the semi-Pelagians of France had
ascribed similar opinions, with the view of bringing him into
disgrace: "There are persons who denounce us, so blinded by pa**ion
that they have adopted means for doing so which ruin their own
reputation. They have, for this purpose, fabricated propositions of
the most impious and blasphemous character, which they industriously
circulate, to make people believe that we maintain them in the
wicked sense which they are pleased to attach to them. But our reply
will show at once our innocence, and the malignity of these persons
who have ascribed to us a set of impious tenets, of which they are
themselves the sole inventors."
Truly, father, when I found that they had spoken in this way
before the appearance of the papal constitution- when I saw that
they afterwards received that decree with all possible respect, that
they offered to subscribe it, and that M. Arnauld had declared all
this in his second letter, in stronger terms than I can report him,
I should have considered it a sin to doubt their soundness in the
faith. And, in fact, those who were formerly disposed to refuse
absolution to M. Arnauld's friends, have since declared that, after
his explicit disclaimer of the errors imputed to him, there was no
reason left for cutting off either him or them from the communion of
the Church. Your a**ociates, however, have acted very differently; and
it was this that made me begin to suspect that you were actuated by
prejudice.
You threatened first to compel them to sign that constitution,
so long as you thought they would resist it; but no sooner did you see
them quite ready of their own accord to submit to it than we heard
no more about this. Still however, though one might suppose this ought
to have satisfied you, you persisted in calling them heretics,
"because," said you, "their heart belies their hand; they are
Catholics outwardly, but inwardly they are heretics."
This, father, struck me as very strange reasoning; for where is
the person of whom as much may not be said at any time? And what
endless trouble and confusion would ensue, were it allowed to go on!
"If," says Pope St. Gregory, "we refuse to believe a confession of
faith made in conformity to the sentiments of the Church, we cast a
doubt over the faith of all Catholics whatsoever." I am afraid,
father, to use the words of the same pontiff when speaking of a
similar dispute this time, "that your object is to make these
persons heretics in spite of themselves; because to refuse to credit
those who testify by their confession that they are in the true faith,
is not to purge heresy, but to create it- hoc non est haeresim
purgare, sed facere." But what confirmed me in my persuasion that
there was, indeed, no heretic in the Church, was finding that our
so-called heretics had vindicated themselves so successfully that
you were unable to accuse them of a single error in the faith, and
that you were reduced to the necessity of a**ailing them on
questions of fact only, touching Jansenius, which could not possibly
be construed into heresy. You insist, it now appears, on their being
compelled to acknowledge "that these propositions are contained in
Jansenius, word for word, every one of them, in so many terms," or, as
you express it, "Singulares, individuae, totidem verbis apud Jansenium
contentae."
Thenceforth your dispute became, in my eyes, perfectly
indifferent. So long as I believed that you were debating the truth or
falsehood of the propositions, I was all attention, for that quarrel
touched the faith; but when I discovered that the bone of contention
was whether they were to be found word for word in Jansenius or not,
as religion ceased to be interested in the controversy, I ceased to be
interested in it also. Not but that there was some presumption that
you were speaking the truth; because to say that such and such
expressions are to be found word for word in an author, is a matter in
which there can be no mistake. I do not wonder, therefore, that so
many people, both in France and at Rome, should have been led to
believe, on the authority of a phrase so little liable to suspicion,
that Jansenius has actually taught these obnoxious tenets. And, for
the same reason, I was not a little surprised to learn that this
same point of fact, which you had propounded as so certain and so
important, was false; and that, after being challenged to quote the
pages of Jansenius in which you had found these propositions "word for
word," you have not been able to point them out to this day.
I am the more particular in giving this statement, because, in
my opinion, it discovers, in a very striking light, the spirit of your
Society in the whole of this affair; and because some people will be
astonished to find that, notwithstanding all the facts above
mentioned, you have not ceased to publish that they are heretics
still. But you have only altered the heresy to suit the time; for no
sooner had they freed themselves from one charge than your fathers,
determined that they should never want an accusation, substituted
another in its place. Thus, in 1653, their heresy lay in the quality
of the propositions; then came the word for word heresy; after that we
had the heart heresy. And now we hear nothing of any of these, and
they must be heretics, forsooth, unless they sign a declaration to the
effect "that the sense of the doctrine of Jansenius is contained in
the sense of the five propositions."
Such is your present dispute. It is not enough for you that they
condemn the five propositions, and everything in Jansenius that
bears any resemblance to them, or is contrary to St. Augustine; for
all that they have done already. The point at issue is not, for
example, if Jesus Christ died for the elect only- they condemn that as
much as you do; but, is Jansenius of that opinion, or not? And here
I declare, more strongly than ever, that your quarrel affects me as
little as it affects the Church. For although I am no doctor, any
more than you, father, I can easily see, nevertheless, that it has
no connection with the faith. The only question is to ascertain what
is the sense of Jansenius. Did they believe that his doctrine
corresponded to the proper and literal sense of these propositions,
they would condemn it; and they refuse to do so, because they are
convinced it is quite the reverse; so that, although they should
misunderstand it, still they would not be heretics, seeing they
understand it only in a Catholic sense.
To illustrate this by an example, I may refer to the conflicting
sentiments of St. Basil and St. Athanasius, regarding the writings
of St. Denis of Alexandria, which St. Basil, conceiving that he
found in them the sense of Arius against the equality of the Father
and the Son, condemned as heretical, but which St. Athanasius, on
the other hand, judging them to contain the genuine sense of the
Church, maintained to be perfectly orthodox. Think you, then,
father, that St. Basil, who held these writings to be Arian, had a
right to brand St. Athanasius as a heretic because he defended them?
And what ground would he have had for so doing, seeing that it was not
Arianism that his brother defended, but the true faith which he
considered these writings to contain? Had these two saints agreed
about the true sense of these writings, and had both recognized this
heresy in them, unquestionably St. Athanasius could not have
approved of them without being guilty of heresy; but as they were at
variance respecting the sense of the pa**age, St. Athanasius was
orthodox in vindicating them, even though he may have understood
them wrong; because in that case it would have been merely an error in
a matter of fact, and because what he defended was really the Catholic
faith, which he supposed to be contained in these writings.
I apply this to you, father. Suppose you were agreed upon the
sense of Jansenius, and your adversaries were ready to admit with
you that he held, for example, that grace cannot be resisted, those
who refused to condemn him would be heretical. But as your dispute
turns upon the meaning of that author, and they believe that,
according to this doctrine, grace may be resisted, whatever heresy you
may be pleased to attribute to him, you have no ground to brand them
as heretics, seeing they condemn the sense which you put on Jansenius,
and you dare not condemn the sense which they put on him. If,
therefore, you mean to convict them, show that the sense which they
ascribe to Jansenius is heretical; for then they will be heretical
themselves. But how could you accomplish this, since it is certain,
according to your own showing, that the meaning which they give to his
language has never been condemned?
To elucidate the point still further, I shall a**ume as a
principle what you yourselves acknowledge- that the doctrine of
efficacious grace has never been condemned, and that the pope has
not touched it by his constitution. And, in fact, when he proposed
to pa** judgement on the five propositions, the question of
efficacious grace was protected against all censure. This is perfectly
evident from the judgements of the consulters to whom the Pope
committed them for examination. These judgements I have in my
possession, in common with many other persons in Paris, and, among the
rest, the Bishop of Montpelier, who brought them from Rome. It appears
from this document that they were divided in their sentiments; that
the chief persons among them, such as the Master of the Sacred Palace,
the commissary of the Holy Office, the General of the Augustinians,
and others, conceiving that these propositions might be understood
in the sense of efficacious grace, were of opinion that they ought not
to be censured; whereas the rest, while they agreed that the
propositions would not have merited condemnation had they borne that
sense, judged that they ought to be censured, because, as they
contended, this was very far from being their proper and natural
sense. The Pope, accordingly, condemned them; and all parties have
acquiesced in his judgement.
It is certain, then, father, that efficacious grace has not been
condemned. Indeed, it is so powerfully supported by St. Augustine,
by St. Thomas, and all his school, by a great many popes and councils,
and by all tradition, that to tax it with heresy would be an act of
impiety. Now, all those whom you condemn as heretics declare that they
find nothing in Jansenius, but this doctrine of efficacious grace. And
this was the only point which they maintained at Rome. You have
acknowledged this yourself when you declare that "when pleading before
the pope, they did not say a single word about the propositions, but
occupied the whole time in talking about efficacious grace." So
that, whether they be right or wrong in this supposition, it is
undeniable, at least, that what they suppose to be the sense is not
heretical sense; and that, consequently, they are no heretics; for, to
state the matter in two words, either Jansenius has merely taught
the doctrine of efficacious grace, and in this case he has no
errors; or he has taught some other thing, and in this case he has
no defenders. The whole question turns on ascertaining whether
Jansenius has actually maintained something different from efficacious
grace; and, should it be found that he has, you will have the honour
of having better understood him, but they will not have the misfortune
of having erred from the faith.
It is matter of thankfulness to God, then, father, that there is
in reality no heresy in the Church. The question relates entirely to a
point of fact, of which no heresy can be made; for the Church, with
divine authority, decides the points of faith, and cuts off from her
body all who refuse to receive them. But she does not act in the
same manner in regard to matters of fact. And the reason is that our
salvation is attached to the faith which has been revealed to us,
and which is preserved in the Church by tradition, but that it has
no dependence on facts which have not been revealed by God. Thus we
are bound to believe that the commandments of God are not
impracticable; but we are under no obligation to know what Jansenius
has said upon that subject. In the determination of points of faith,
God guides the Church by the aid of His unerring Spirit; whereas in
matters of fact He leaves her to the direction of reason and the
senses, which are the natural judges of such matters. None but God was
able to instruct the Church in the faith; but to learn whether this or
that proposition is contained in Jansenius, all we require to do is to
read his book. And from hence it follows that, while it is heresy to
resist the decisions of the faith, because this amounts to an opposing
of our own spirit to the Spirit of God, it is no heresy, though it may
be an act of presumption, to disbelieve certain particular facts,
because this is no more than opposing reason- it may be enlightened
reason- to an authority which is great indeed, but in this matter
not infailible.
What I have now advanced is admitted by all theologians, as
appears from the following axiom of Cardinal Bellarmine, a member of
your Society: "General and lawful councils are incapable of error in
defining the dogmas of faith; but they may err in questions of
fact." In another place he says: "The pope, as pope, and even as the
head of a universal council, may err in particular controversies of
fact, which depend principally on the information and testimony of
men." Cardinal Baronius speaks in the same manner: "Implicit
submission is due to the decisions of councils in points of faith;
but, in so far as persons and their writings are concerned, the
censures which have been pronounced against them have not been so
rigourously observed, because there is none who may not chance to be
deceived in such matters." I may add that, to prove this point, the
Archbishop of Toulouse has deduced the following rule from the letters
of two great popes- St. Leon and Pelagius II: "That the proper
object of councils is the faith; and whatsoever is determined by them,
independently of the faith, may be reviewed and examined anew: whereas
nothing ought to be re-examined that has been decided in a matter of
faith; because, as Tertullian observes, the rule of faith alone is
immovable and irrevocable."
Hence it has been seen that, while general and lawful councils
have never contradicted one another in points of faith, because, as M.
de Toulouse has said, "it is not allowable to examine de novo
decisions in matters of faith"; several instances have occurred in
which these same councils have disagreed in points of fact, where
the discussion turned upon the sense of an author; because, as the
same prelate observes, quoting the popes as his authorities,
"everything determined in councils, not referring to the faith, may be
reviewed and examined de novo." An example of this contrariety was
furnished by the fourth and fifth councils, which differed in their
interpretation of the same authors. The same thing happened in the
case of two popes, about a proposition maintained by certain monks
of Scythia. Pope Hormisdas, understanding it in a bad sense, had
condemned it; but Pope John II, his successor, upon re-examining the
doctrine understood it in a good sense, approved it, and pronounced it
to be orthodox. Would you say that for this reason one of these
popes was a heretic? And must you not consequently acknowledge that,
provided a person condemn the heretical sense which a pope may have
ascribed to a book, he is no heretic because he declines condemning
that book, while he understands it in a sense which it is certain
the pope has not condemned? If this cannot be admitted, one of these
popes must have fallen into error.
I have been anxious to familiarize you with these discrepancies
among Catholics regarding questions of fact, which involve the
understanding of the sense of a writer, showing you father against
father, pope against pope, and council against council, to lead you
from these to other examples of opposition, similar in their nature,
but somewhat more disproportioned in respect of the parties concerned.
For, in the instances I am now to adduce, you will see councils and
popes ranged on one side, and Jesuits on the other; and yet you have
never charged your brethren for this opposition even with presumption,
much less with heresy.
You are well aware, father, that the writings of Origen were
condemned by a great many popes and councils, and particularly by
the fifth general council, as chargeable with certain heresies, and,
among others, that of the reconciliation of the devils at the day of
judgement. Do you suppose that, after this, it became absolutely
imperative, as a test of Catholicism, to confess that Origen
actually maintained these errors, and that it is not enough to condemn
them, without attributing them to him? If this were true, what would
become of your worthy Father Halloix, who has a**erted the purity of
Origen's faith, as well as many other Catholics who have attempted the
same thing, such as Pico Mirandola, and Genebrard, doctor of the
Sorbonne? Is it not, moreover, a certain fact, that the same fifth
general council condemned the writings of Theodoret against St. Cyril,
describing them as impious, "contrary to the true faith, and tainted
with the Nestorian heresy"? And yet this has not prevented Father
Sirmond, a Jesuit, from defending him, or from saying, in his life
of that father, that "his writings are entirely free from the heresy
of Nestorius."
It is evident, therefore, that as the Church, in condemning a
book, a**umes that the error which she condemns is contained in that
book, it is a point of faith to hold that error as condemned; but it
is not a point of faith to hold that the book, in fact, contains the
error which the Church supposes it does. Enough has been said, I
think, to prove this; I shall, therefore, conclude my examples by
referring to that of Pope Honorius, the history of which is so well
known. At the commencement of the seventh century, the Church being
troubled by the heresy of the Monothelites, that pope, with the view
of terminating the controversy, pa**ed a decree which seemed
favourable to these heretics, at which many took offence. The
affair, nevertheless, pa**ed over without making much disturbance
during his pontificate; but fifty years after, the Church being
a**embled in the sixth general council, in which Pope Agathon presided
by his legates, this decree was impeached, and, after being read and
examined, was condemned as containing the heresy of the
Monothelites, and under that character burnt, in open court, along
with the other writings of these heretics. Such was the respect paid
to this decision, and such the unanimity with which it was received
throughout the whole Church, that it was afterwards ratified by two
other general councils, and likewise by two popes, Leo II and Adrian
II, the latter of whom lived two hundred years after it had pa**ed;
and this universal and harmonious agreement remained undisturbed for
seven or eight centuries. Of late years, however, some authors, and
among the rest Cardinal Bellarmine, without seeming to dread the
imputation of heresy, have stoutly maintained, against all this
array of popes and councils, that the writings of Honorius are free
from the error which had been ascribed to them; "because," says the
cardinal, "general councils being liable to err in questions of
fact, we have the best grounds for a**erting the sixth council was
mistaken with regard to the fact now under consideration; and that,
misconceiving the sense of the Letters of Honorius, it has placed this
pope most unjustly in the rank of heretics." Observe, then, I pray
you, father, that a man is not heretical for saying that Pope Honorius
was not a heretic; even though a great many popes and councils,
after examining his writings, should have declared that he was so.
I now come to the question before us, and shall allow you to state
your case as favourably as you can. What will you then say, father, in
order to stamp your opponents as heretics? That "Pope Innocent X has
declared that the error of the five propositions is to be found in
Jansenius?" I grant you that; what inference do you draw from it? That
"it is heretical to deny that the error of the five propositions is to
be found in Jansenius?" How so, father? Have we not here a question of
fact exactly similar to the preceding examples? The Pope has
declared that the error of the five propositions is contained in
Jansenius, in the same way as his predecessors decided that the errors
of the Nestorians and the Monothelites polluted the pages of Theodoret
and Honorius. In the latter case, your writers hesitate not to say
that, while they condemn the heresies, they do not allow that these
authors actually maintained them; and, in like manner, your
opponents now say that they condemn the five propositions, but
cannot admit that Jansenius has taught them. Truly, the two cases
are as like as they could well be; and, if there be any disparity
between them, it is easy to see how far it must go in favour of the
present question, by a comparison of many particular circumstances,
which as they are self-evident, I do not specify. How comes it to
pa**, then, that when placed in precisely the same predicament, your
friends are Catholics and your opponents heretics? On what strange
principle of exception do you deprive the latter of a liberty which
you freely award to all the rest of the faithful? What answer will you
make to this, father? Will you say, "The pope has confirmed his
constitution by a brief." To this I would reply, that two general
councils and two popes confirmed the condemnation of the letters of
Honorius. But what argument do you found upon the language of that
brief, in which all that the Pope says is that "he has condemned the
doctrine of Jansenius in these five propositions"? What does that
add to the constitution, or what more can you infer from it?
Nothing, certainly, except that as the sixth council condemned the
doctrine of Honorius, in the belief that it was the same with that
of the Monothelites, so the Pope has said that he has condemned the
doctrine of Jansenius in these five propositions, because he was led
to suppose it was the same with that of the five propositions. And how
could he do otherwise than suppose it? Your Society published
nothing else; and you yourself, father, who have a**erted that the
said propositions were in that author "word for word," happened to
be in Rome (for I know all your motions) at the time when the
censure was pa**ed. Was he to distrust the sincerity or the competence
of so many grave ministers of religion? And how could he help being
convinced of the fact, after the a**urance which you had given him
that the propositions were in that author "word for word"? It is
evident, therefore, that in the event of its being found that
Jansenius has not supported these doctrines, it would be wrong to say,
as your writers have done in the cases before mentioned, that the Pope
has deceived himself in this point of fact, which it is painful and
offensive to publish at any time; the proper phrase is that you have
deceived the Pope, which, as you are now pretty well known, will
create no scandal.
Determined, however, to have a heresy made out, let it cost what
it may, you have attempted, by the following manoeuvre, to shift the
question from the point of fact, and make it bear upon a point of
faith. "The Pope," say you, "declares that he has condemned the
doctrine of Jansenius in these five propositions; therefore it is
essential to the faith to hold that the doctrine of Jansenius touching
these five propositions is heretical, let it be what it may." Here
is a strange point of faith, that a doctrine is heretical be what it
may. What! if Jansenius should happen to maintain that "we are capable
of resisting internal grace" and that "it is false to say that Jesus
Christ died for the elect only," would this doctrine be condemned just
because it is his doctrine? Will the proposition, that "man has a
freedom of will to do good or evil," be true when found in the
Pope's constitution, and false when discovered in Jansenius? By what
fatality must he be reduced to such a predicament, that truth, when
admitted into his book, becomes heresy? You must confess, then, that
he is only heretical on the supposition that he is friendly to the
errors condemned, seeing that the constitution of the Pope is the rule
which we must apply to Jansenius, to judge if his character answer the
description there given of him; and, accordingly, the question, "Is
his doctrine heretical?" must be resolved by another question of fact,
"Does it correspond to the natural sense of these propositions?" as it
must necessarily be heretical if it does correspond to that sense, and
must necessarily be orthodox if it be of an opposite character. For,
in one word, since, according to the Pope and the bishops, "the
propositions are condemned in their proper and natural sense," they
cannot possibly be condemned in the sense of Jansenius, except on
the understanding that the sense of Jansenius is the same with the
proper and natural sense of these propositions; and this I maintain to
be purely a question of fact.
The question, then, still rests upon the point of fact, and cannot
possibly be tortured into one affecting the faith. But though
incapable of twisting it into a matter of heresy, you have it in
your power to make it a pretext for persecution, and might, perhaps,
succeed in this, were there not good reason to hope that nobody will
be found so blindly devoted to your interests as to countenance such a
disgraceful proceeding, or inclined to compel people, as you wish to
do, to sign a declaration that they condemn these propositions in
the sense of Jansenius, without explaining what the sense of Jansenius
is. Few people are disposed to sign a blank confession of faith. Now
this would really be to sign one of that description, leaving you to
fill up the blank afterwards with whatsoever you pleased, as you would
be at liberty to interpret according to your own taste the unexplained
sense of Jansenius. Let it be explained, then, beforehand, otherwise
we shall have, I fear, another version of your proximate power,
without any sense at all- abstrahendo ab omni sensu. This mode of
proceeding, you must be aware, does not take with the world. Men in
general detest all ambiguity, especially in the matter of religion,
where it is highly reasonable that one should know at least what one
is asked to condemn. And how is it possible for doctors, who are
persuaded that Jansenius can bear no other sense than that of
efficacious grace, to consent to declare that they condemn his
doctrine without explaining it, since, with their present convictions,
which no means are used to alter, this would be neither more nor
less than to condemn efficacious grace, which cannot be condemned
without sin? Would it not, therefore, be a piece of monstrous
tyranny to place them in such an unhappy dilemma that they must either
bring guilt upon their souls in the sight of God, by signing that
condemnation against their consciences, or be denounced as heretics
for refusing to sign it?
But there is a mystery under all this. You Jesuits cannot move a
step without a stratagem. It remains for me to explain why you do
not explain the sense of Jansenius. The sole purpose of my writing
is to discover your designs, and, by discovering, to frustrate them. I
must, therefore, inform those who are not already aware of the fact
that your great concern in this dispute being to uphold the sufficient
grace of your Molina, you could not effect this without destroying the
efficacious grace which stands directly opposed to it. Perceiving,
however, that the latter was now sanctioned at Rome and by all the
learned in the Church, and unable to combat the doctrine on its own
merits, you resolved to attack it in a clandestine way, under the name
of the doctrine of Jansenius. You were resolved, accordingly, to get
Jansenius condemned without explanation; and, to gain your purpose,
gave out that his doctrine was not that of efficacious grace, so
that every one might think he was at liberty to condemn the one
without denying the other. Hence your efforts, in the present day,
to impress this idea upon the minds of such as have no acquaintance
with that author; an object which you yourself, father, have
attempted, by means of the following ingenious syllogism: "The pope
has condemned the doctrine of Jansenius; but the pope has not
condemned efficacious grace: therefore, the doctrine of efficacious
grace must be different from that of Jansenius." If this mode of
reasoning were conclusive, it might be demonstrated in the same way
that Honorius and all his defenders are heretics of the same kind.
"The sixth council has condemned the doctrine of Honorius; but the
council has not condemned the doctrine of the Church: therefore the
doctrine of Honorius is different from that of the Church; and
therefore, all who defend him are heretics." It is obvious that no
conclusion can be drawn from this; for the Pope has done no more
than condemn the doctrine of the five propositions, which was
represented to him as the doctrine of Jansenius.
But it matters not; you have no intention to make use of this
logic for any length of time. Poor as it is, it will last sufficiently
long to serve your present turn. All that you wish to effect by it, in
the meantime, is to induce those who are unwilling to condemn
efficacious grace to condemn Jansenius with less scruple. When this
object has been accomplished, your argument will soon be forgotten,
and their signatures, remaining as an eternal testimony in
condemnation of Jansenius, will furnish you with an occasion to make a
direct attack upon efficacious grace by another mode of reasoning much
more solid than the former, which shall be forthcoming in proper time.
"The doctrine of Jansenius," you will argue, "has been condemned by
the universal subscriptions of the Church. Now this doctrine is
manifestly that of efficacious grace" (and it will be easy for you
to prove that); "therefore the doctrine of efficacious grace is
condemned even by the confession of his defenders."
Behold your reason for proposing to sign the condemnation of a
doctrine without giving an explanation of it! Behold the advantage you
expect to gain from subscriptions thus procured! Should your
opponents, however, refuse to subscribe, you have another trap laid
for them. Having dexterously combined the question of faith with
that of fact, and not allowing them to separate between them, nor to
sign the one without the other, the consequence will be that,
because they could not subscribe the two together, you will publish it
in all directions that they have refused the two together. And thus
though, in point of fact, they simply decline acknowledging that
Jansenius has maintained the propositions which they condemn, which
cannot be called heresy, you will boldly a**ert that they have refused
to condemn the propositions themselves, and that it is this that
constitutes their heresy.
Such is the fruit which you expect to reap from their refusal, and
which will be no less useful to you than what you might have gained
from their consent. So that, in the event of these signatures being
exacted, they will fall into your snares, whether they sign or not,
and in both cases you will gain your point; such is your dexterity
in uniformly putting matters into a train for your own advantage,
whatever bias they may happen to take in their course!
How well I know you, father! and how grieved am I to see that
God has abandoned you so far as to allow you such happy success in
such an unhappy course! Your good fortune deserves commiseration,
and can excite envy only in the breasts of those who know not what
truly good fortune is. It is an act of charity to thwart the success
you aim at in the whole of this proceeding, seeing that you can only
reach it by the aid of falsehood, and by procuring credit to one of
two lies either that the Church has condemned efficacious grace, or
that those who defend that doctrine maintain the five condemned
errors.
The world must, therefore, be apprised of two facts: first, That
by your own confession, efficacious grace has not been condemned;
and secondly, That nobody supports these errors. So that it may be
known that those who refuse to sign what you are so anxious to exact
from them, refuse merely in consideration of the question of fact, and
that, being quite ready to subscribe that of faith, they cannot be
deemed heretical on that account; because, to repeat it once more,
though it be matter of faith to believe these propositions to be
heretical, it will never be matter of faith to hold that they are to
be found in the pages of Jansenius. They are innocent of all error;
that is enough. It may be that they interpret Jansenius too
favourably; but it may be also that you do not interpret him
favourably enough. I do not enter upon this question. All that I
know is that, according to your maxims, you believe that you may,
without sin, publish him to be a heretic contrary to your own
knowledge; whereas, according to their maxims, they cannot, without
sin, declare him to be a Catholic, unless they are persuaded that he
is one. They are, therefore, more honest than you, father; they have
examined Jansenius more faithfully than you; they are no less
intelligent than you; they are, therefore, no less credible
witnesses than you. But come what may of this point of fact, they
are certainly Catholics; for, in order to be so, it is not necessary
to declare that another man is not a Catholic; it is enough, in all
conscience, if a person, without charging error upon anybody else,
succeed in discharging himself.
Reverend Father, if you have found any difficulty in deciphering
this letter, which is certainly not printed in the best possible type,
blame nobody but yourself. Privileges are not so easily granted to
me as they are to you. You can procure them even for the purpose of
combating miracles; I cannot have them even to defend myself. The
printing-houses are perpetually haunted. In such circumstances, you
yourself would not advise me to write you any more letters, for it
is really a sad annoyance to be obliged to have recourse to an
Osnabruck impression.